The nine villages of Things Fall Apart are Unuofia, Ikemefua, Aninta, Umuazu, Mbaino, Abame, Elumelu, Ikeocha and Iguedo.
More importantly, these nine villages define and circumscribe the universe of meaning and movement in Things Fall Apart.The novel begins with the line:
"Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond."
These nine villages are linked and differentiated by complex and overlapping ties of kinship, custom and religious belief. The members of the villages define themselves by the particularities of their village customs and standards.
"I have even heard that in some tribes a man's children belong to his wife and her family."
Finally, the setting of the nine villages, with all their comings and goings, gods and ancestors, and marriage and funeral rites, serves as the catastrophic backdrop and foil for the arrival of a foreign people. Whatever subtleties of belief exist among the nine villages, they pale in comparison to the beliefs of the coming Europeans. This in turn creates the cultural and existential emergency at the heart of the novel:
"There is no story that is not true...The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others."
The nine villages become a universe on which a larger universe is suddenly hoisted upon, to dramatic result.
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